COMMENTARY

A New Ecology of Learning

DR. PETER SMITH, Senior Vice President, Kaplan Higher Education

February 26, 2010

America is face-to-face with a new ecology of learning when it comes to access and quality in higher education. As described in The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christiansen, we are now surrounded by circumstances and technology which are “disruptive” to traditional forms of higher education. They lie outside the status quo and offer entirely new possibilities to successfully educate under-served populations to high standards.  With these new possibilities, and with the continued improvement in the traditional sector, America can meet President Obama’s goal of doubling the number of college graduates by 2020. Without them, it simply will not happen.

The new ecology includes at least nine elements that, taken collectively, define the necessity and the inevitability of dramatically new approaches to teaching and learning in American higher education. READ MORE...

SOURCE: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

THE NEWS

ACADEMIC PREPARATION

Business principles won't work for school reform, former supporter Ravitch says
By Nick Anderson, Washington Post
For those who believe that performance pay and charter schools pose a threat to public education and that a cult of testing and accountability has hijacked school reform, an unlikely national spokeswoman has emerged. Diane Ravitch, an education historian, now renounces many of the market-oriented policies she promoted as a former federal education official with close ties to Democrats and Republicans. In large part because of her change of heart, Ravitch's critique of the reform ideas that prevail in government, philanthropies and think tanks is reverberating in the world of education.

Duncan Defends Cost and Direction of Education Budget to Congress
By Paul Basken, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan began his public defense of the Obama administration's education budget Thursday on Capitol Hill as he responded to a series of expected criticisms from Republicans about the plan's cost. He then faced pointed questions from as many fellow Democrats who were worried about the budget's direction. Mr. Duncan repeatedly explained that the plan to increase federal education spending by 7.5 percent at a time of severe budget constraint reflected the administration's firm belief that education is key to the nation's long-term economic success.

Legislature to consider class size, replacing FCAT
By Christine Armario, Associated Press Writer
Measures to ease class-size amendment requirements, replace the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test with end of course examinations, and require teachers in the state's pre-kindergarten program to hold a bachelor's degree are all up for consideration as the Legislature goes into session next week. Florida voters approved an amendment in 2002 to ensure smaller classes, the requirements of which have been gradually implemented over the last eight years. The final phase are scheduled to take effect next fall, when every class must meet a specific grade-level cap, rather than calculate a school or districtwide average.

Effecting Change on Default Rates
By Doug Lederman, InsideHigherEd.com
Colleges, unlike leopards, can change their spots (or in this case their default rates), according to a new study by the Education Sector. Lowering Student Loan Default Rates is largely a historical look at how a consortium of historically black colleges and universities, faced with the prospect of federal penalties a decade ago, altered their policies and programs in ways that helped to lower their so-called cohort default rates and keep the colleges out of trouble.

Tallying Cuts and Costs
By Anna Bloom, NY Times
This article illustrates, via numbers, the impact of California budget cuts in higher education and the resulting layoffs, furloughs and fee increases.

Bill would scrap limits on tuition increases
By Tom McGhee, The Denver Post
The state budget crisis leaves lawmakers with little choice but to let some state colleges and universities increase tuition without legislative approval, Gov. Bill Ritter said Thursday, reversing his position on the issue.  It would require heads of state schools to submit financial plans showing how they would assure a public-college education would remain affordable in the face of tuition hikes.

Mind the gap
By Rebecca Attwood, The Times
Widening participation is a site of 'moral panic', marked by uncertainties over data and the efficacy of public funding. Despite all this, the academy is striving to deliver on its promise. Widening participation has been the subject of government targets, ministerial speeches, policy initiatives, newspaper headlines and tens of millions of pounds in state funding. After years of expansion, student places will be cut this autumn, and universities are facing financial penalties of £10 million for recruiting the very students the Government claims it wants.

Private college numbers soar despite regulators' crackdown
By Guy Healy, The Australian
Private college numbers have surged by 20 per cent in the past year, defying the federal government crackdown and prompting a warning the sector is still expanding too fast for regulators to cope. As scores of colleges have collapsed or been wound up in the past two years, another 100 providers have sprung up mainly in key problem states of Victoria and NSW, latest official figures show.

As Ottawa prepares to battle deficit, schools fear for research budget
By Elizabeth Church, Globe and Mail
Ottawa earmarked $2-billion for campus bricks-and-mortar projects in last year's budget. That money, together with matching funds from the provinces and other sources, has kick-started 536 projects, ranging from new multimillion-dollar facilities to upgrades of existing buildings. Now, as Ottawa turns its attention to slaying a record deficit, campuses face the prospect that their shining new buildings will not be matched with new research dollars.

Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better
Educators widely recognize that the quality of preparation in middle school often determines whether our young people will succeed in high school and beyond. This is a particularly important challenge in California—the nation’s largest and most diverse state—which educates one out of eight middle grades students in the United States. The study surveyed more than 4,000 California teachers, principals, and superintendents about a wide range of middle grades practices. To see what higher-performing schools did, the responses were then analyzed against school-level student outcomes on standards-based state tests in English language arts and math, controlling for student background. 

NATIONAL CAPITOL SUMMIT, April 12-13, 2010, Washington, DC

RETENTION 2010, International Conference on Student Success, June 9-11, 2010, Chicago, IL